In July 1874, forty-year-old Eliza Catterick, also known as Eliza Shipley, died suddenly while travelling with her two sons aboard the Beautiful Star from Lyttelton to Dunedin. Witnesses described her as troubled in the days before the voyage, drinking heavily and still unsettled after a family quarrel six weeks earlier. She had suffered a seizure about five months prior, and her sons later confirmed she had been drinking more often since.
On board the steamer, Eliza appeared to be recovering from another fit when the second officer first saw her. Throughout the afternoon and evening she repeatedly asked for brandy, grew agitated when refused, and was helped to bed several times by the stewardesses. She became increasingly restless during the night, groaning, shaking, and calling out for drink. Around half past six the next morning she was found dead, already cold, in the steerage cabin where she slept beside her sons.
The medical examination found no signs of violence. Instead, her brain vessels were congested, her heart and lungs were filled with blood, and froth had gathered in the air passages, consistent with death during an epileptic fit. Her liver was diseased. The inquest jury concluded that Eliza died “in an epileptic fit, brought on by excessive drinking”.